19 
V 1 



020 914 049 4 



LAFAYETTE DAY 

FRAKCE-AMERICA 
SOCIEIY 



dinner to /rice/ 

HIS EXCELLENCY THE 
AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE 

at the Waldorf-Astoria, on tAe 
even/no of September sixth, 
nineteen hundred eighteen, 
bcinq the one hundred and sixty- 
first anniversary of the 

the MARQUIS DE LVFAYETIE, 

Generalofthe Armies of 

RZANCEo/it/o/MeUNITEDSEAIES 

and also the Fourth Anniver- 
sary of the Battle of the Marnz. 

Thinner Report 






a4 



/ 



i^*^>>-',i-0 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 



INDEX to the 
SPEECHES and MESSAGES 



Speeches 

PAGE 

Nicholas Murray Butler, presiding, President 

of the France-America Society 39 

His Excellency Jean Jules Jusserand, Ambas- 
sador of France 18 

The Honorable Franklin K. Lane, Secretary 

of the Interior 30 

His Excellency Sir Henry Babington Smith, 
K.C.B., Minister Plenipotentiary and Act- 
ing High Commissioner of Great Britain.... 45 

The Honorable Professor T. Masaryk, Presi- 
dent of the Provisional Government of the 
Czecho-Slovak Nation 40 

Invocation by the Very Reverend Theophile 
Wucher, Dean of the French Clergy in 
New York, and Provincial of the Order of 
Mercy (de la Misericorde) 8 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

Messages 

PAGE 

The President of the United States 9-10 

His Eminence William Cardinal O'Connell, 

Archbishop of Boston 11 

Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Commander-in- 
Chief of the Allied Armies in France 11 

His Excellency Gabriel Hanotaux, President 
of the Comite France-Amerique, and Mem- 
ber of the Academy of France 11 

Andre Tardieu, High Commissioner of France.. 12 

Singing of the Marseillaise, of the Star Spangled 
Banner and of the National Anthems of Eng- 
land and of Italy by Commendatore Enrico 
Caruso, Officer of the Legion of Honor of 
France. 



four 



Lafayette-Marne Day 
1918 

Lafayette Day, the one hundred and sixty- 
first anniversary of the birth of the Marquis 
de Lafayette, General of the Armies of France 
and of the United States, coinciding with the 
fourth anniversary of the 1914 victory of 
the Marne, was observed in the customary 
manner by ceremonies at the City Hall, and 
elsewhere in the city, organized by the Na- 
tional Lafayette Day Association, and by the 
annual dinner of the France-America Society 
at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, in the evening. 
The guest of honor, as in previous years, was 
His Excellency the Ambassador of France. 

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, 
President of Columbia University, 
and President of the Society, took the 
chair, having on his right the Ambassador of 
France, and on his left the Honorable Frank- 
lin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior. Seated 
at the same table were the Right Honorable Sir 
Maurice de Bunsen, G.C.M.G., Special Am- 
bassador of Great Britain to the Latin Re- 
publics of America, and the representative of 
England at Vienna at the time of the outbreak 
of the war; Mr. T. Masaryk, President of the 
Provisional Government of the Czecho- Slovak 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

nation; their Excellencies George Roussos and 
E. de Cartier de Marchienne, Envoys Ex- 
traordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary of 
Greece and of Belgium respectively; His Ex- 
cellency Sir Henry Babington Smith, K.C.B., 
Minister Plenipotentiary and Acting High 
Commissioner of Great Britain; Admiral L. 
Grout, commanding the French naval forces 
in the North Atlantic and West Indian 
v^^aters; Admiral Albert Gleaves and Admiral 
Nathaniel Usher of the United States Navy; 
General Asa Bird Gardiner, secretary of the 
Order of the Cincinnati, who was wearing the 
gold badge of the order, that was made 
for and worn by George Washington; 
the Honorable W. R. Riddell, Justice of the 
Appellate Court of Ontario; General Vignal 
and General Stefanic of the French Army; 
William D. Guthrie, Vice-President of the 
France- America Society; General J. Franklin 
Bell, U.S.A., commanding the Department of 
the East; General W. A. White, C.B., Chief 
of the British Recruiting Mission; George T. 
Wilson, Vice-President of the Pilgrims So- 
ciety; General William H. Bowes, C.B., of 
the British Army; Gaston Liebert, Consul- 
General of France; the Honorable Victor J. 
Dowling, Justice of the Appellate Court of 
New York; the Honorable Richard E. En- 
right, Commissioner of Police ; the Honorable 
Edward Swann, District Attorney of New 
York; the Honorable Charles De Wood}^, of 

SIX 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

the Department of Justice; F. Cunliffe-Owen, 
Chairman of the Executive Committee ot the 
France-America Society; William Fellowes 
Morgan, President of the Merchants Associa- 
tion of New York; C. Clive Bayley, the Con- 
sul-General of Great Britain; Colonel Samuel 
E. Tillman, commanding the U. b. Mihtary 
Academy at West Point; C. Yada Consul- 
General of Japan; and Colonel B. Benda, of 
the Italian War Mission. 

There were likewise present: A. Barton 
Hepburn, former President of the France- 
America Society; S. Reading Bertron, the Sec- 
retary of the Society, and the following Di- 
rectors: Henry W. Sackett, Albert Eugene 
Gallatin, George Foster Peabody, Eugene H. 
Outerbridge, likewise the Very Reverend 
Canon Cabanel, Chaplain of the French Army ; 
the Honorable Major Hugo Baring, of the 
British Army; Sir Byron Peters, James Mor- 
timer Montgomery, President-General Sons ot 
the Revolution ; the Baron de Grancey, of the 
French Navy, founder member of the Comite 
France- Amerique in Paris; Marcel Knecht, 
of the French High Commission; Geottrey 
Butler, C.B., of the British War Mission; 
Rear Admiral Marbury Johnson, U.b.iN.; 
Lucien Jouvaud, President of the French 
Benevolent Society; C. A. Downer, President 
of the Alliance Frangaise; Commodore Lionel 
de L. Wells, R.V.C.B. ; Captain de ViUeneuve 
of the French Battleship Gloire ; Captain de 



SEVEN 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

Roquefeuil, of the French Battleship Mont- 
calm; the Honorable Byron Newton, Col- 
lector of the Port of New York; Maurice 
Leon and Charles Stewart Davison, the 
heads of the National Lafayette Day Observ- 
ance Association; Emerson McMillin Darwin, 
P. Kingsley, Theodore P. Shonts, George R. 
Sheldon, Dr. John S. Thacher, Thomas D. 
Neelands, President of the Canadian Club ; J. 
N. Jarvis, President of the Canadian Society; 
the Honorable W. H. Edwards, Collector of 
Internal Revenue; General Oliver B. Bridg- 
man, etc., etc. 

Before sitting down to dinner. President 
Nicholas Murray Butler addressed those pres- 
ent as follows: 

Your Excellencies and Gentlemen: Grace 
will now be said by the Very Reverend Father 
Theophile Wucher, Dean of the French Church 
in New York, Provincial of the Order of Mercy, 
and a patriotic French son of Alsace, long en- 
slaved, but now on the threshold of her lib- 
eration. 

The invocation of the Very Reverend 
Father Wucher followed. 

Soon after nine o'clock, and after the cus- 
tomary loyal toasts of the Society to the Presi- 
dent of the United States and to the President 
of France had been given by President Butler, 
and duly honored, Commendatore Enrico 
Caruso, Officer of the Legion of Honor of 
France, took his place on the dais, and sang 

EIGHT 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

a verse from the national anthems of France, 
of the United States, of Great Britain and of 
Italy. President Butler thereupon presented 
to Signor Caruso a gold medal, with the fol- 
lowing words: 

Signor Caruso, as a slight recognition of the 
honor you have done us, and the pleasure you 
have given us, I hand you this gold medal in 
behalf of the directors and members of the 
France-America Society, which medal they have 
caused to be struck in recognition of your pres- 
ence with us tonight. 

Mr. CunlifEe-Owen, Chairman of the Ex- 
ecutive Committee of the Society, thereupon 
read the following messages: 

Letter from the President of the United States. 
The White House 

My Dear Mr. Cunliffe-Owen: 

I wish most sincerely that I might be at the 
Annual Dinner of the France-America Society, 
on September 6. Since I cannot be, will you not 
be kind enough to convey my greetings to those 
present, and to say how much I regret that I 
cannot have the opportunity to join with them 
in expressing the feelings of gratitude and deep 
admiration for the Marquis de Lafayette, which 
I am sure all our fellow-countrymen entertain, 
who love this great country, and who cherish 
the great memories of the days of the Revolu- 
tion ? We are in a better position now, perhaps, 
than we ever were before, to realize what it 
meant that men like Lafayette should join their 
fortunes with ours, in a great struggle for 
Liberty, and that the Government of the great 
country w^hich Lafayette represented should, at 

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FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

the hour of greatest need, have extended its 
hand of effective aid across the seas. 

Cordially and sincerely yours, 

{Signed) Woodrow Wilson. 

Mr. Cunliffe-Owen: His Eminence 
Cardinal O'Connell was to have been present 
tonight and to have spoken for France. Ow- 
ing to the dangerous iUness of Cardinal Farley 
he has not been able to be with us, and has 
asked me to read this letter: 

From His Erninence IFillia?n Cardinal O'Con- 
nell, Archbishop of Boston. 

Boston, September 3, 1918. 
My Dear Mr. Cunliffe-Owen: 

To speak for France at any time is an honor. 
But to speak for France in these days when 
French heroism and French endurance have 
thrilled the world, is the highest privilege. My 
regret at being compelled to forego this priv- 
ilege is as deep as it is sincere. 

When your kind invitation reached me, I 
instantly accepted it, not only gladly, but 
eagerly; for to voice in the presence of the Am- 
bassador of France, and the honorable company 
about him, my profound love for the land of 
Lafayette, and ray enthusiastic admiration for 
the heroes of the Marne, was something for 
which my heart yearned. 

Alas! events have conspired against me, and 
the coveted honor will be gained by another. 
Nobly as he is sure to acquit himself under the 
inspiration of so lofty a theme, he can never feel 
more deeply than I do a genuine and generous 
love for the glorious France of history, and as 
fervent admiration for the high heroism of the 
suffering France of today. 

TEN 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

So that when about the banquet table your 
noble company rises to the toast, I will arise 
here too, and my message, borne over the seas, 
will be "Vive la France!" and my fervent ap- 
peal to Heaven, "Dieu protege la France! 

May I ask you to kindly present my homage 
to His Excellence, the French Ambassador, and 
to speak for me my regrets? 

I have the honor to be, 

Very faithfully yours, 

iSianed) William Cardinal O'Connell, 

Archbishop of Boston. 



Cablegram from Marechal Foch, 

Commanding in chief the Entente 

Armies in France 

Greatlv obliged for your congratulations and 

good wfshes. I am with you in heart in the 

celebration of this glorious anniversary ot 

Lafayette. Once again the profound union ot 

our two nations will make force. 

{Signed) Marechal Foch. 

Cablegram from Gabriel Hanotaux, 
of the Academy of France. President of the 
Comite France-Amerique, in Pans, and 
former Minister of Foreign Affairs 
Nicholas Murray Butler, 
President, France- America Society, New \ork. 
We are with you today, when your loyal 
friendship leads you to celebrate this double 
and glorious anniversary. The battle front re- 
echoes with the magnificent successes in which 
we are united, the enemy being everywhere in 
retreat. We address to you from this soil ot 
France, now in the course of liberation, a cry 
of confidence and of firm hope in an early vic- 
tory, which will be a triumph for all humanity. 
{Signed) Gabriel Hanotaux. 

eleven 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

Cablegram from Andre Tardieu, 
Commissioner-General of Franco-American 

War Relations 
Pray accept all my regrets at being unable 
to take part in your banquet to celebrate the 
anniversaries of the birth of Lafayette, and of 
the first victory of the Marne. I am with you 
with all my heart to celebrate these two 
souvenirs, the commemoration of which unites 
ever more closely the United States and France. 
{Signed) Andre Tardieu. 

AIr. Cunliffe-Owen : Mr. President, 
Your Excellencies and Gentlemen, may I be 
allowed, before I resume my seat, to ask you all 
to drink to a toast which ought to go before 
all others, and which is usually left to the 
last? Gentlemen, the women — the heroic, de- 
voted women of France — the guardian angels 
of France — represented here tonight by the 
lady in the box 3'onder who furnishes a blend 
of all that is most gracious in the womanhood 
of France and of the United States — Madame 
Jusserand, the Ambassadress of France. 

This toast was received with loud and pro- 
longed applause. 

President Butler: Your Excellencies, 
Mr. Secretary, and Gentlemen of the Society: 
The France-America Society has met many 
times since the first of August, 1914, but it 
has never met with a more distinguished com- 
pany of guests at its board or under happier 

TWELVE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

and brighter auspices. (Applause.) The w^ord 
Hun has begun to rhyme with the word 
run. (Laughter and applause.) We have 
met in moments of depression, in moments 
of hesitation, in moments of doubt. To- 
night we meet at a moment of ne\A' con- 
fidence and exultation. (Applause.) We 
have known that nothing could shake our 
confidence in ultimate victory ; we have known 
that beyond these clouds of war the sun was 
shining, and now the sun has broken through ! 
I cannot share the regret expressed by Marshal 
Foch that he is not able to be with us tonight. 
(Laughter and applause.) I prefer to have 
him exactly where he is (applause), and to 
send him word that we do not need him w^ith 
us because we are with him. (Applause.) 

This war has brought us many things, and 
it has given us perhaps a new anniversary. We 
Americans have been accustomed these many 
years to celebrate on each July 4 our day of 
national independence. Why should we not 
hereafter celebrate on September 6, the an- 
niversary of Lafayette and of the first b~attle 
of the Marne, our day of national interde- 
pendence? (Applause.) What anniversary 
could be more suitable than one which recalls 
the gracious, chivalrous and warm-hearted per- 
sonality of the friend and companion in arms 
of Washington, the first really vital, personal 
link between the new republic on this side of 
the Atlantic and that older France upon whose 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

civilization we so heavily lean ? And now that 
date has been given a new significance and 
takes its place forever in the history of human 
achievement, for it is the date of the decisive 
act of the first great battle of the Marne, when 
Marshal Joft're and the armies of France 
stopped them, — the date on which the German 
armies began to lose this war, and the date 
on which the Allied armies began to w^in it. 
(Applause.) What could be a more signifi- 
cant use of that date than to make it a day 
of celebration of our national interdepend- 
ence, of these new ties, of these new and 
strong friendships, of these new and moving 
aspirations, of these new and terrible suffer- 
ings for the achievement of the highest of 
all ends? 

When we look about us, we find that to- 
day the heart of America is not here. It is 
in France. The best, the bravest of the youth 
of America are not here; they are in France. 
The interest, the attention, the affection of 
our people are not here; they are in France. 
But in France they are at home. (Applause.) 
In France — despite the barrier of language, so 
rapidly being broken down, — iii France, Amer- 
ica is today expressing all that is best and 
finest and most ennobling in its nature, its 
history, its traditions, in order that it may show 
its heart to that great, powerful, silent, suffer- 
ing people which for four 3^ears has borne the 
brunt of this terrific struggle. 

FOURTEEN 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

There is nothing new that we can say about 
it. We have long since exhausted our words 
of panegyric for this marvelous exhibition of 
national power, national resolution, national 
self-control and national determination. All 
that we can do now is to continue to stand by 
the side of France and our Allies until that 
for which France has suffered is won com- 
pletely and forever. (Applause.) 

I said that we meet at a moment of ex- 
ultation. We do. But let us not deceive our- 
selves. This war is not yet won. There are, 
perhaps, weary months ahead of us before we 
shall have accomplished our set purpose; and 
during those months we shall be solicited again 
to stay our hand. We shall be told pretty 
soon, when winter sets in and the ground is 
muddy one day and frozen the next, when 
hostilities on a grand scale are halted — we shall 
be told, 'What is the use of continuing this 
contest longer? Why not agree now upon 
some basis for peace?" Gentlemen, what hol- 
low mockery! Have we embarked with 
France and Britain and Italy and the Czecho- 
slovaks [turning to Professor Masaryk] (ap- 
plause) — have we embarked on this enterprise 
to trade it away ? Or have we embarked upon 
it to bring it to a conclusion and to settle 
it in terms that free men understand, that free 
men agree upon, and that free men hand to 
their defeated foes to accept? (Applause.) 

It is the old story, day by day, week by 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

week. We are solicited to weaken our resolu- 
tion, or to halt in our resolve. That might 
well be, gentlemen, if we had entered upon a 
commercial transaction. We might then ju- 
diciously and fairly compromise it for a 
reasonable gain ; but the free nations of the 
world are not engaged in any commercial 
transaction. They are not spending their 
blood, their treasure, and bending their insti- 
tutions till sometimes they almost break, for 
any commercial purpose. They are set upon 
the achievement of a great human ideal, and, 
having started, they propose to carry it through 
until that ideal is reached and accomplished 
in terms that can be understood by all men. 
We have made magnificent progress. We are 
doing splendidly and well. Let us not be di- 
verted for one moment from the fundamental 
fact that Peace through Victory is the only 
peace that we want, for that peace will last. 
(Great applause.) 

We meet particularly to celebrate our re- 
lations with France, to renew our pledges of 
affectionate friendship and devotion, to tell 
once more the story of our understanding and 
our sympathy, and to spread out before the 
whole world the great flood of feeling that 
wells up in our hearts when the name of that 
j-teople is mentioned, when their achievements, 
their suliferings and their accomplishments are 
before us. 

There are a thousand ways in which we can 

SIXTEEN 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

give expression to what we feel. It is not a 
matter, my dear Ambassador, of the head 
alone. We think w^e understand; we think 
we appreciate; we think that we know some- 
thing of the great intellectual significance of 
France. It is not that. Tonight it is a matter 
of the heart; it is what we feel; it is what 
brings the tears to our eyes, as we read of 
these marvelous exhibitions of courage and de- 
votion, of capacity and continuance in well 
doing. It is what touches us to the very quick 
as we read of the sufferings of old men and 
women and children; it is what wrenches our 
hearts as we hear of the beating down of great 
masterpieces of art and of architecture, and it 
is what fills us with anger and contempt as 
we learn of the devastation which a retreat- 
ing foe has spread behind him as he turns his 
face toward the east. 

The German communique of yesterday 
stated that a certain town was now in front 
of their lines. A cynical writer in the So- 
cialist Voriuaerts remarked that it would be 
more frank so to frame the communique as 
not to give the impression that the lines had 
stood still and the town had moved. (Laugh- 
ter.) He said it would be a little more con- 
fidential with the public to say that the army 
had retreated from the town than to say that 
that town now lay before their lines. Gentle- 
men, a great many towns are going to change 
places within the next few weeks. (Applause.) 

SEVENTEEN 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

But the natural feature of Europe that has got 
first of all to change its place with reference 
to the German Army is the River Rhine. (Ap- 
plause.) When those official communiques be- 
gin to say that the River Rhine now lies "be- 
fore our lines", the people at home in Germany 
will begin to understand what is going to hap- 
pen. (Applause.) They will understand that 
this war is going to be really won. and is not 
to be compromised or traded away or negoti- 
ated, after all these 3^ears of sacrifice and suiifer- 
ing and human upheaval. That is the message, 
Mr. Ambassador, which the members of this 
Society would like to send through you to 
their friends and Allies in France. (Applause.) 
I propose a toast to France, her Army, her 
people, her soul ; and I couple it with the name 
of our old friend who is much more than an 
Ambassador — he is both a French American 
and an American Frenchman, — His Excel- 
lency, the Ambassador of France. (Applause.) 

Ambassador Jusserand: Mr. President, 
Mr. Secretary, Your Excellencies and Gentle- 
men: When, more than a century and a half 
ago, that event took place which we are com- 
memorating today, the name of Lafayette was 
only known in the world of letters, to the 
select few who had been able to enjoy a brief 
novel of 200 pages, "La Princesse de Cleves", 
written by one who bore that name only 
through marriage. 

EIGHTEEN 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

The name is now of world-wide renown, a 
magic name to conjure by; at the sound of 
which only great and noble images come to 
the mind — the image of Washington, the 
souvenir of a people who wanted to be free, 
reached freedom and is the American Republic 
of today, the remembrance of a long life de- 
voted from the earliest to the last days to the 
cause of independence. 

That magic name has once more brought 
us together, celebrations are held in a number 
of cities, the greatest in the land take part in 
them. President Wilson does so in Wash- 
ington ; President Poincare of France has sent 
us a message; the eloquent President of 
Columbia University, whose words carry 
weight, has consented to preside over this as- 
sembly; my admired friend, the Secretary of 
the Interior, has come from Washington, as 
well as several of those colleagues of mine who, 
like me, represent nations arrayed in the 
definitive fight against injustice and barbarity. 

Since w^e met last year many events have 
ing part played by this nation, with the firmest 
will to win, in the world conflict. Anything 
that is asked of it is granted at once: be it 
subscription to immense loans, the giving up 
of the accustomed food, or the accustomed auto 
ride on Sunday, the acceptance of new taxation 
(8 billion dollars is the report), or the in- 
crease of the draft age, w^hich w^ill include boys 

NINETEEN 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETV 

of 18 and men of 45. And this increase has 
just come to pass owing to a unanimous 
vote of the two Houses. With their thou- 
sands of spies, and their million dollars for 
what they were pleased to call propaganda 
(which included murder), the Germans had 
no idea that this could be. There was one 
spot opened to us all, but in which German 
spies could not pry, that was the American 
heart. 

One of the best French cartoons published 
during the war appeared recently. It repre- 
sents the Kaiser staggered at the sight of an 
immense army arriving in the distance. Be- 
fore him stands an armed angel whose open 
wings show stars in their upper part, while the 
long feathers below simulate stripes. Says the 
Kaiser: "But what is the fleet which can have 
carried over the vSeas this numberless army?" 

The angel answers: *'The Lusitania". 

A valiant army if any, the praise of which 
is on every lip, a youthful, good-humored, 
cheery army, whose every soldier is welcome 
in the castle and in the hut, and is offered just 
as heartily the best cake or the last crust; an 
immense army that ceaselessly grows; for 
month after month you send over to France 
double the number of men Napoleon had at 
Waterloo. Many French names written on 
the map recall our presence here at the time 
of your fight for independence, chief among 
them that of Lafavette. Manv American 



i 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

names will, in after time, recall the splendid 
part you are taking in the deliverance of France 
and of the world. The name of President 
Wilson is already written there, and one of 
our woods which used to be called Belleau 
Wood will be known henceforth as the **Bois 
de la Brigade de Marine", having been freed 
by your marines in the battle of Chateau 
Thierry. 

The enemy is doomed. The day is \ui- 
known; the fact is certain. The enemy feels 
anxious; when he feels anxious, he raises his 
eyes to heaven, deplores the slaughter, com- 
plains of his being friendless and lonely, and 
wonders at the heartlessness of us who will 
not desist; he babbles of peace. Falstaff, on 
his deathbed, was, as you know, ''babbling of 
green fields". They think they can lure us, 
having lured others; but they are mistaken; 
our peoples know how to read ; they can even 
read between the lines. 

Who could believe that it is really a German 
who talks thus: ''The time must come when 
between peoples and peoples something like an 
impulse of confidence shall germinate; when 
oppressed human nature shall revolt against 
false doctrines, threatening to suffocate the 
innermost human affinities." 

Yes, it is a German who is piping thus, 
an exalted one, but an anxious one. It is 
Dr. Solf, their Minister of Colonies (a man of 
leisiire he must be just now) ; thus was he 



TWENTY-ONE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

speaking not more than a fortnight ago. He 
was so good as to add: "We do not intend 
to retain Belgium in any form whatever." But 
it is a fact that for what Germans intend or 
do not intend on that point, we do not care. 
Noble Belgium shall owe nothing to her un- 
speakable tyrants. 

In such cases, Germans rarely omit to refer 
to their grand offer to the Entente Powers on 
December 12, 1916, when they informed the 
world that "the four allied Powers (that is 
themselves) proposed to enter forthwith into 
peace negotiations," saying all the possible good 
of the "propositions which they brought for- 
ward". What propositions ? Giving the meas- 
ure of their sincerity, they refused to tell. 
When the President of the United States asked 
us and them for positive statements, we gave 
ours (January 10, 1917), but the Germans 
simply referred to their previous indeterminate 
ofiEer which they had, however, embellished 
thus in a note to the Pope: "Europe, which 
formerly was devoted to the propagation of 
religion and civilization, which was trying to 
find solutions for social problems and was the 
home of science and art and all peaceful labor, 
now resembles an immense war camp in which 
the achievements of many decades are doomed 
to annihilation." 

This from the very men who destroyed 
Rheims and Louvain, for the pleasure of it, and 
who, as Ambassador Morgenthau has shown 

TWENTY-TWO 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

beyond the possibility of a doubt, had deter- 
mined upon war weeks before the Austrian 
Crown Prince had been assassinated by an 
Austrian subject. That death came oppor- 
tunely for them ; if it had not come, something 
else would have been found. The Serbs would 
have been told, just as we were, that they had 
bombarded Nurenberg; any fairy tale would 
have been good enough. But now the enemy 
babbles of green fields. 

We are, however, more difficult than ever, 
for we are no longer reduced to suppositions, 
probable as those were, concerning the kind of 
terms they intended to propose. They have 
signed, in the course of the present year, a 
series of peace treaties so that any one can 
judge: treaties with Ukraine, Bolshevik Rus- 
sia, Finland, Roumania (February 9, March 
3, March 7, May 6). 

The animus inspiring Germany while sign- 
ing those deeds is thus described by "green 
fields" Dr. Solf: Germany was determined 
"not to bar the way now open to oppressed 
peoples — the road to freedom, order and mu- 
tual tolerance." 

This is on a par with the Kaiser's own 
words: "The sword has been forced into our 
hands", after he had declared war on everyr 
body. For the facts are there, indisputable, 
confessed by the Germans themselves ; all those 
treaties are treaties not of freedom but of 
bondage; and each was violated at once^ 

TWENTY-THREE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

"scraps of paper" that they are, so as to make 
them worse in practice. 

All the world now knows what is the "re- 
inforced protection" bestowed by the Germans 
on Ukraine and how the "road to freedom" 
open to that country led her oppressors to the 
banks of the Black Sea. The country is over- 
run with German troops, the peasants have 
risen in arms against them, and Ukrainians 
now realize what is meant by a German peace. 

The treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 3) 
took from Russia territories vaster than Ger- 
many and Austria put together, one-third of 
the total Russian population, one-half of the 
total mileage of railways, nine-tenths of the 
total coal production, three-fourths of the total 
iron. And worse perhaps than all the rest, the 
treaty prescribes the "orderly return to Tur- 
key" of Russian Armenia and neighboring 
provinces: so that it be possible to continue 
until none be left the orderly slaughter of the 
Christians in Armenia. 

Esthonia and Livonia arc handed by the 
same treaty to "a German police force until 
order in the state is restored", the Germans, 
of course, being the judges thereof. 

Awaiting a German King, as the best pro- 
moter of freedom, Finland has been "liber- 
ated", which consisted in placing her under a 
German protectorate. By article 1 of their 
treaty of March 7, the Finns undertake "not 
to grant a servitude to any foreign po\A cr with- 

TWENTY-FOUR 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

out having first come to an understanding with 
Germany in the matter". What is a "servi- 
tude ?" The Germans it will be to say. 

And what can be said of the treaty with 
Roumania, which gags a brave, highly civilized 
nation, tramples her under foot, suppresses her 
army transformed into a mere police force, 
takes from her the total of her sea coasts, in- 
troduces into each of her Ministries a German 
adviser, gives to Austria her best forests, popu- 
lation included, to Germany her petroleum re- 
sources, imposes a military occupation which 
the Germans will be able to prolong at will ; 
places ports and railways in the hands of the 
Germans. In case of difficulties about petro- 
leum, there will be arbitration ; we tliink we 
can breathe; let us not; the umpire will be 
appointed by the President of the Court of 
Leipzig. 

As usual, additional decrees or arrange- 
ments have aggravated conditions considered 
too lenient by the worshippers of Odin. One 
prescribes obligatory labor, in the occupied 
territory, of all males from 14 to 60, under 
penalties including five years of prison and 
even death. 

Bessarabia was, by the same treaty, annexed 
to Roumania. Can we find in this a trace of 
generosity? Not the slightest; it is merely a 
way of submitting one more province to the 
"regime" of the Roumanian conditions. 

Were we right or were we not when wc 

TWENTY -FIVE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

declined to lay down our arms, as the Rus- 
sians did, before discussing the terms in store 
for them, and when we refused to walk into 
the trap laid out for us? If there had been 
any doubt, it would have been removed by a 
casual remark of the German delegates at 
Bukharest. When the Roumanians expressed 
their horror at the terms proposed to them, 
the Germans coolly answered (and that I do 
know) : ''They are very moderate in com- 
parison with what is in store for the Allies 
after the German victory." 

Very probably so if there was to be a Ger- 
man victory. We cannot forget that one of 
their papers, the ''Rhinish and Westphalian 
Gazette," once gave us an inkling, unobjected 
to by their censor, of what they really contem- 
plated. It fully agrees with the dictum of the 
delegates at Bukharest, in the present year. 
"Our ultimate aim," that worthy sheet had 
said, in November, 1916, "is to push through 
to the west and to the ocean. Whatever offers 
resistance is to be crushed. . . . What 
the victor gets, he holds. . . . Let us 
daily tell the French that every foot we con- 
quer is ours. We need not waste words about 
Belgium. We need access to the Channel and 
we need Antwerp. Whoever wants Belgium 
may fetch it from us." 

The Germans follow their leader, and what 
can we expect of such a nation following such 
a leader ? Few descriptions of him and of his 

TWENTY-SIX 



F R A N C E - A M E R I C A SOCIETY 

deeds are better than this one, written by a 
man of his own race: 

"Superb in his attitude, casting his glances 
right and left, the very movements of his body 
seem to reveal his pride of power. . . . 
He planned the conquest of the universe. . . 

His power has risen in spite of all justice 
and his cruelty has had such a success as to in- 
spire horror. . . . Where can we find the 
cause of this immense slaughter? What 
hatreds can have incited so many nations to 
rush one against the other? That humanity 
could be but a tool in the hands of a king has 
been made evident when the mad folly of one 
man caused so many nations to be given over 
to carnage and the swelled fantasy of a mon- 
arch destroyed in an instant what it had cost 
nature so many centuries to produce." 

Accurate as this portrait is, the Kaiser did 
not actually sit for the painter ; for it was writ- 
ten in the sixth century by Jornandes, the 
Goth, who had for his original Attila, King 
of the Huns. 

"I am God's scourge", Attila had said. *'I 
am the instrument of the Almighty." "I am 
his sword, his representative. Disaster and 
death to all those who resist my will", said 
his imitator and admirer, the Kaiser, in a 
proclamation to his army in the East in Decem- 
ber, 1914. 

In the Catalaunian fields the first battle of 
the Marne was fought, and Attila defeated, 

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FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

A. D. 451. Those fields are the plains near 
the Marne about Chalons, the Catalaunum of 
those days. The second battle of the Marne 
was won four years ago today by one whom 
you saw and triumphantly received last year, 
Marshal Joffre ; and it becomes more and more 
certain, as time passes, that it will be one of 
the great dates in the history of the w^orld. The 
third battle of the Marne still goes on. It 
offers this unique character that American 
troops have played in it a splendid part; the 
first great victory in Europe in which they 
have been associated. Starting from the 
Marne, the battle continues. Pershing's men 
win the admiration of all. Our English friends 
are doing wonders, and all acting together, led 
by that stout-hearted soldier. Marshal Foch, 
we bid fair to proceed from one river to an- 
other, until we pay the enemy the compliment 
of echoing on the spot one of his favorite songs : 
"The Watch on the Rhine". 

The peace offensive of the enemy will fail 
as well as his other offensives. He chose and 
appointed the day when should begin what he 
himself now^ rightly calls "the atrocities of 
war"; (^) we shall choose and appoint the 
day for peace. Our terms are known to the 
W'hole world ; they aim at the destruction not 
of Germany, but of Germanism, at the lib- 
eration not only of our Alsace-Lorraine, but of 
all the Alsace- Lorraines in the w^orld. And we 

7T)~German Note to the Powers, Dec. 2. 191 S. 
TWENTY-EIGHT 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

simply acted in accordance with our principles, 
with the principles of the hero of the day, Laf- 
ayette, the principles set forth in admirable 
language by President Wilson w^hen we and 
our Allies recognized, only the other day, the 
independence of those splendid Czecho-Slo- 
vaks, whose anabasis through Siberia will iiave 
been one of the memorable deeds of the war, 
the United States having joined us this very 
week in this work of honor. 

Hand in hand when the day comes, after 
years of suffering and of hope, having per- 
fected their great task with an equal courage 
and abnc'gation, the honest nations of the 
world will w^alk towards the temple of Justice ; 
two of tliem will look like twin sisters, the 
Republic of France and the Republic of 
America. 

Presidi:nt 13utler: Gentlemen, our So- 
ciety is signally honored tonight by the pres- 
ence of a member of the cabinet of the Presi- 
dent of the United States. It is not easy at a 
time like this, when important decisions are 
to be made almost every hour, for a man in 
a highly responsible post to steal away to share 
our pleasure and our satisfaction; but our 
guest has been able to do so, and w^e thank 
him for it and express our appreciation of it. 

I have great honor and satisfaction in pre- 
senting to you one whom I think I may claim 
MS an old personal friend, an American who 

TVVEXTY-NINE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

laid the foundation for his reputation by good 
citizenship and public service in the State of 
California, who did yeoman service for years 
as a member of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission, and who has been from the beginning 
of President Wilson's administration at the 
head of the great Department of the Interior, 
a man who commands the confidence and re- 
spect of Americans, regardless of section or of 
party. 

I have the honor to present Mr. Secretary 
Lane. (Applause.) 

Secretary Lane: IVIr. President, Your 
Excellencies and Gentlemen: Before leaving 
Washington today I did a thing which pleased 
me and I trust will please you. In honor of 
that man whose birthday we celebrate, and in 
honor of the Lafayette Escadrille, I named a 
flying field in the Mount Desert National 
Park "Lafayette Field." This body of beauti- 
ful meadow lies at the foot of a bold mountain 
which w^e are to call the "Flying Squadron." 
It faces the sea and looks directly across to 
France. And on one of the shoulders of this 
mountain we expect to erect a monument upon 
which will be carved the names of those flying 
men who have given their lives to secure world 
liberty. This was an appropriate thing to do, 
because this piece of land originally belonged 
to France; it was the westernmost part of 
Acadia, and afterward it came to be a part of 

THIRTY 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

the State of Massachusetts. This field itself 
had belonged to the granddaughter of Cadil- 
lac, who had been dispossessed. But because 
of the importuning of Lafayette it was restored 
to Madame de Gregoire and from her de- 
scended until it was purchased as a part of the 
first National Park east of the Missouri River. 

I hope that the France- America Society will 
accept this as another evidence of the undying 
admiration that America has for the friend of 
Washington. It will be appropriate, too, if I 
can find some mountain in the great chain that 
passes through our continent from north to 
south, some rocky mountain peak which blocks 
the way of glacier and of flood, upon which 
might be written the words: "They shall not 
pass", and name it after the hero of the Marne. 

The United States has summoned wirhin 
one year twenty-three million men to the 
colors; ten million under the first draft, and 
thirteen million under the second draft are to 
register. This is our answer to the sinking 
of the Lusitania, to the sinking of the Sussex, 
to the bombing of Red Cross hospitals, to the 
crucifixion of Canadians, to mustard gas, and 
to all the horrors of Belgium. America is in- 
deed a fighting nation. There has not been 
a generation since it was a nation when it did 
not fight. But it always has fought for a 
principle, and in fighting for a principle a 
nation fights for itself. Every one of those 
twenty-three million men who may be needed 

THIRTY-ONE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

to bring the Germans to a realization that the 
philosophy of unlimited force is not to master 
the world will be put on the battlefield of 
France. No such draft will be needed, for the 
Allies have got their second wind, and if I 
understand Foch's tactics aright he will never 
let the Germans get their second wind. 

We are answering Germany with ten thou- 
sand tons of new ships each day, which we 
will make twenty thousand tons next year. 

We are answering Germany with tanks, and 
aeroplanes. And remember this, that the in- 
ventive genius of America is not yet exhausted. 

Above all, we are answering Germany with 
a spirit of determination, and of enthusiasm 
and confidence which cannot be excelled in 
that whole sweep of Western Europe, from 
the Shetland Islands to the i^gean Sea. 

A few weeks ago I was in the Hawaiian 
Islands, far up on the side of Mona Loa. 
There I spoke to two hundred and fifty boys, 
Hawaiians, not three per cent of whom had 
been born under the American flag, who had 
just entered the army. As I stopped in front 
of them I said : "Is there any one here who 
wants to go to France?" and every hand went 
up with a great shout. Five thousand miles 
west of here, on an island that twenty years 
ago did not belong to us! I went from there 
into a school. I was introduced to the children 
as Mr. Lane, and the teacher said: "Does 
any child here know who Mr. Lane is?" At 

THIRTY-TWO 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

once a girl answered: "He is the Secretary of 
the Interior." "And what does the Secretary 
of the Interior have to do?" "He has charge 
of lands, and mines, and parks, and other 
things," said this girl. I grew suspicious at 
once, and I thought that this was what you 
would call in New York a "frame-up", and 
so I asked this girl, who was half Chinese and 
half Hawaiian: "And who is the Secretary 
of State?" Her answer came at once: "Mr. 
Robert Lansing". And then I said : "Do you 
know why we are in this war?" And she 
answered, looking out on the Pacific, which 
surrounded us: "To make the sea safe and 
to help those who need help." 

Our splendid President gave to the world 
the only epigramatic statement of our national 
aim when he said that we were fighting to 
make the world safe for democracy. That is 
but another way of saying what the little 
Hawaiian girl said. We are in the war to 
make the sea safe, so that no man can master 
the highways of the world, so that no man ever 
again will have the audacity to draw a line 
across the Atlantic, or the Pacific, and say to 
America, or to any other country: "You may 
be permitted to sail this line, in a ship painted 
as we shall designate, carrying a flag that we 
shall paint." 

To help those who need help! This is the 
essence of that fine spirit of chivalry which 
distinguishes what we call Christian civiliza- 

THIRTY-THREE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

tion. Force, unrestrained force, force without 
conscience behind it, without the limitations of 
the moral law, force without the Ten Com- 
mandments and without the Declaration of 
Independence — this is not to master the world. 

The cave man with his club, believing only 
in the doctrine of the survival of the strongest, 
has had his day. He is to be succeeded by the 
chivalric spirit of the Lafayette, the almost 
child-like gentleness of the firm Jofifre, and the 
broad humanitarianism of the Woodrow 
Wilson. 

We are speaking in terms of force now, be- 
cause we are speaking the one language which 
the German hierarchy understands, the lan- 
guage that comes from the cannon's mouth, 
and we will continue to speak in that language 
until we have a military decision, and a mili- 
tary decision will have been reached, as I 
understand it, when Germany knows that she 
has been whipped in battle and knows she 
will be whipped again and again if she con- 
tinues to fight, — that she cannot stand against 
the physical force of the world or against its 
moral force. 

These are glad and glorious days, ennobling 
days. The world has stood in fear and trem- 
bling for four years, but as the Britishers, the 
Canadians, the Australians, the Americans and 
the French sweep on their way from Ypres to 
Arras, they lift the burden from our hearts and 
fill us with high hope, for now we know that 

THIRTY-FOUR 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

we are on our way to that military decision 
which will lead to a compact between nations 
under which wars may not be made impossible, 
but more unreasonable and more unlikely. I 
expect that this Society will meet two years 
from this time to celebrate not merely the 
birthday of Lafayette or the glorious feat of 
Joffre, nor merely the end of this unprece- 
dented war, but the close of an epoch in the 
history of the world and the beginning of a 
new day in the relationship between nations 
and in the relationship between man and man. 
Now that we see that peace is to come to the 
world, we are deeply interested in the new 
world that will be. For all conceive that this 
war has been another great step on the road 
to real democracy, a democracy in spirit as well 
as in form. Everyone can perceive that the 
world's thought is in a state of flux. Nothing 
is static. And it becomes those who are wise 
to see that whatever policies are adopted as to 
the future root themselves in the real and per- 
manent traditions of the past, which are the 
fruits of man's experience, but that these 
things which are superficial and not funda- 
mental may be discarded. We must make 
America more perfectly the expression of our 
own belief that it is the throne-seat of liberty 
and justice. The essence of our thought, of 
our political, our social, and our economic 
philosophy, is fair play, fair play between na- 
tions, fair play between micn. We must have a 

THIRTY-FIVE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

clear and concise conception ourselves as to 
what America is, and we must interpret that 
conception to the world, and especially to that 
portion of the world which has come to our 
shores and which has not yet become American. 
There have been many schemes devised by 
which men of foreign birth may be American- 
ized, but after all, there is but one method, and 
that is by human relationship. America is 
judged by the foreign-born, and should be so 
judged by them, by the manner in which they 
are treated by Americans. As we have chiv- 
alry in battle, so we should have chivalry in 
life. 

We have undertaken the greatest task, the 
solution of the largest and most involved prob- 
lem that any people have undertaken — gather- 
ing together men and women of all nations, 
creeds and races, blending them into a nation 
and creating out of them a new race. We have 
looked upon this matter not with indifference, 
but with that infinite faith that all things 
would solve themselves if left alone, which 
has been characteristic of our life. But I be- 
lieve that the time has come when we should 
intimately concern ourselves, as individuals and 
as a nation, with the hopes, the dreams, the 
ideals and the destinies of the many millions of 
people who are with us but are not fully us. 
Is it any wonder that these people do not under- 
stand what America means? What effort 
have we made to let them know that America 

THIRTY-SIX 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

IS more than an industrial hunting-ground? 
You and I realize that America is more than 
money, or mines, more than lands, more than 
stocks and industry. It is a spirit, a free spirit, 
a growing spirit. It has rejected the theory 
that some men are born to rule and others to 
be their peasant henchmen. I trust that it will 
not adopt the idea that America is a nurse . 
whose business it is to treat mankind as de- 
pendents. It is rather the sunshine and the 
free air which induce life and which challenge 
the spirit of men. 

America is adventure, but it is not exploita- 
tion. 

America is the land of the free and the 
home of the brave, but it is the land of the free 
because it is the home of the brave. 

America is heart as well as hands and head. 
America is a hope, not a thing done. Amer- 
ica is a history of great men and great deeds, 
of the mastering of the continent, of the 
revolution of unprecedented resources, the 
organization of industries upon the hugest 
scale. But it is more than these. It is a vision 
of life, a conception of free men making their 
way constantly and unendingly against every 
challenge that nature presents, the challenge of 
mountains and of the streams and of the for- 
ests and of the lands, and the challenge of the 
greed, the indifferences, the laziness, the wil- 
fulness of man's own nature. Man has come 
here seeking justice through liberty, through 



THIRTY-SEVEN 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

Stable and orderly liberty. He has gone back 
to the old world to fight for that ideal in 
France. These boys will return to fight for 
that ideal in America. They will have a 
larger conception of the world, a knowledge 
of peoples that they did not have before. We 
should prepare America to receive them in the 
spirit which they will have upon their return. 
What should we do, practically? I believe 
that we should extend and expand our public 
school system, so that in the first instance 
every school will be an educating ground for 
American citizenship, so that no boy or girl 
can pass through the school without having a 
sense of what America is, how it has been 
made, what its resources are, how its people 
live, what has been the evolution of its institu- 
tions, what its services have been to mankind; 
and in the second place no boy or girl should 
come out of our public schools without know- 
ing some trade. The new day is to be a day 
in which the test will be: "Of what use are 
you in the world ?" All private industries will 
become public utilities, unless those industries 
have breathed into them a supreme sense of 
public service. And all men are slackers, who 
are not at work, creative work. 

There is within us all a small man and a 
large man. The small man is the narrow, 
personal, self-indulgent, egotistic man. I am 
afraid that this is the man who was uppermost 
in our days of peace. The large man is the 

THIRTY-EIGHT 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

man who has been challenged by this war. 
He sees the worthlessness of little strivings, of 
small ambitions, and he has come forward as 
never before, saying to the nation: "How can 
I be of use?" This man is in the ascendant. 
He is represented by the boy on the battlefield 
and by the man who puts his energy and 
enthusiasm into the work at home. He has 
a new religion, because he is living in the 
presence of a new compelling idea. If this 
spirit remains alive, if the torch burns as 
brightly after the war as it does today, America 
will have a renaissance which will keep her in 
the leadership of the world. 

Out of the war we have new heroes, new 
concrete presentations of the things that we 
admire in man, and by that admiration we 
will grow. Out of the war we are to have 
new ideals of society, in which we will, I trust, 
give the highest premium to the man who can 
be of the greatest service. Out of the war 
we are to have a new conception of ourselves, 
a humbler conception and yet a prouder one, 
I trust. 

President Butler: Gentlemen, the 
France-America Society has the very peculiar 
privilege and distinction of being the first body 
publicly to salute the new Czecho-Slovak na- 
tion since its recognition by the govern.ment of 
the United States. It is not often that infants 
are gifted with eloquence, but it so happens 

THIRTi'-NINE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

that this people has in the President of its 
Provisional National Council a chosen leader 
who is truly one of the world's greatest states- 
men. When I had the honor to present him 
some weeks ago to the largest and most en- 
thusiastic public meeting it has ever been my 
fortune to see in the City of New York in 
course of more than thirty years, I ventured 
to say that he was one of the half dozen most 
important personalities in the world. I now 
repeat that statement in your presence. To his 
genius and to his zeal the new Czecho-Slovak 
nation owes no small part of its being, and to 
those same qualities we and our Allies owe no 
small part of the value of the Czecho-Slovak 
army now fighting in Siberia for the re- 
demption of Russia. (Applause.) 

It is a very, very great honor to have among 
our guests and to represent you as the spokes- 
man of the Czecho-Slovak people, their chosen 
leader. Dr. Masaryk. (Applause.) 

Dr. Masaryk: Mr. President and Gentle- 
men: The speakers of this evening explained 
to us what the spirit of Lafayette is and what 
it means for us. The spirit of Lafayette was 
the belief of the people of the eighteenth cen- 
tury in the right of men and citizens, and it 
was the French nation who made the declar- 
ation of the right of men and citizens. And 
the same spirit of Lafayette in the eighteenth 
century we are feeling and we are living now 
in the twentieth century, when the statesmen 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

of France and of all united people declare for 
equality, the right of all nations, great and 
small. I am speaking here on behalf of one of 
these small nations, and I am happy to be able 
to thank this Society — in the first place, to 
thank France, who first recognized our nation 
and our National Council. 

I thank Italy, who has made a detailed agree- 
ment with us. I thank Great Britain, whose 
recognition stirred the fury of Germany and 
Austria. And I thank the Government and 
the President of the United States, recognizing 
our provisional government. 

You are right, Mr. President, speaking of 
— I would say, a baby nation — at least I feel 
like the representative of a quite new nation; 
and it is not supposed that babies should speak 
long speeches — not supposed to speak to 
grown statesmen and diplomats. Yet allow 
me to say all that has been said about and 
against Germany, we Bohemians and Slovaks 
feel that it is spoken too against Austria- 
Hungary. Our statement to you is this: 
That without dismemberment of Austria- 
Hungary, there would be no victory. (Ap- 
plause.) No victory, because Austria is here, 
fifty-one millions, the weak tool of Germany. 
Germany controls Austria-Hungary, controls 
the Balkans, Turkey, Asia, Africa. Austria 
cannot subsist if the Allies have to win this 
war. And they must win it and will win it. 
(Applause.) And it is not only, I would say, 

FORTY-ONE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

a political duty; it is the moral duty to dis- 
member Austria. This organization of 
violence where the minority controls and ex- 
ploits the majority of nations — remember, 
please, — don't forget that long phrase which 
was made, as has been stated, in the Reichstag 
of Vienna by the Polish Deputy, Mr. 
D'Choynsky — thirty thousand, perhaps sixty 
thousand civilians have been executed because 
they did not like Austria-Hungary and resisted 
Hungary. Imagine what it means to kill men, 
women and children— 20,000 or 60,000. 
That is Austria, and the spirit of Austria ; and 
therefore our conviction is, Austria must be 
dismembered. (Applause.) 

Then, not only will Bohemia be free and 
Slavic; Poland must be restored and united. 
(Applause.) The South Slavs must be united 
and independent; Roumania, Italy, must get 
their national right; and then we will have, 
from the Baltic down over Bohemia, Poland, 
Roumania, South Slavs, Italy, Switzerland — 
to France, a barrier of Slavs, and not only of 
Slavs, of the Roman nation, against Germany. 
Only then will Russia be able to recover, if 
Germany shall not be the direct neighbor of 
Russia, if Russia shall be freed from this Ger- 
man pressure. That only can be done if all 
these smaller nations in this zone in the east 
shall be liberated. 

And so we Slavs think that the object, the 
primary object, I would say, of this war, is 

FORTY-TWO 



iUUifeUi 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

the solution of the Oriental question, so to 
speak. But not only the Oriental question is 
to be solved. We have a western question, 
too. Secretary Lane explained what he thinks 
is the American spirit. Mr. Jusserand, in his 
able writings, shows that he is not only a 
diplomatist, but a philosopher. He tries to ex- 
plain what Americanism is. I confess I 
learned a good deal about America in his 
books. True America is human. It is the 
humanitarian principle which pervades Amer- 
ica, and being real human, America is ac- 
cepted and the American principles accepted 
by all nations, and if you speak of the process 
of Americanization, we will all be American- 
ized because we hope we will all be human- 
ized. 

Mr. President, j^ou spoke of the interde- 
pendence, if I may say so, of nations — of the 
brotherhood of nations. Our South Slav 
brothers have a peculiar custom. Every man 
chooses one of his friends as his brother, and 
they mix a drop of blood to symbolize the 
brotherhood. Gentlemen, streams of blood, 
streams of the most noble blood you see, are 
mixed on the battlefield of France and of all 
Europe. I ask you, if the South Slavs be- 
come brothers by mixing only one drop of 
blood, what must we, we nations, be if we mix 
those streams, those oceans of blood? More 
than brethren. (Applause.) 

I have finished what I have to say. I once 

FORTY-THREE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

more thank all who are helping and will help 
our nation. Vive la France ! ( Prolonged 
applause.) 

President Butler: Gentlemen, at any 
meeting of the France-America Society at a 
time like this, our program will be incomplete 
without opportunity to pay tribute to the cour- 
age, the service, the quiet, unboasting skill of 
the British Empire. (Applause.) There she 
stands, a veritable Rock of Gibraltar, in this 
time of need, and day by day, as we watch the 
progress on the map of the British armies 
toward Douai and Cambrai and Lille I am 
hoping that it may be their privilege to force 
the turning of the line in the west and to fire 
the signal that will indicate that the invading 
German has been forced from the coast of 
Flanders and to start out of Belgium. 
(Applause.) 

It is a great pleasure to welcome here to- 
night so many representatives of the British 
Army, of the British Navy, and of the Brit- 
ish Diplomatic Service. Perhaps I may be 
permitted to signalize our peculiar pleasure 
that circumstances have brought to our board 
Sir Maurice de Bunsen, who as British Am- 
bassador at Vienna wrote a very substantial 
part of the record of the beginning of this 
war. To speak for Great Britain and to re- 
ceive from us this token of our admiration and 
regard and confidence, I have the honor to 

FORTY-FOUR 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

present the Acting High Commissioner, Sir 
Henry Babington Smith. (Applause.) 

Sir Henry Babington Smith: Mr. 
President, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gen- 
tlemen: I feel it a great honor and privilege 
to be permitted to take part in the celebration 
tonight of the two anniversaries which are the 
occasion of this gathering. Historical events 
and the anniversaries w^hich commemorate 
them derive their importance, it has often been 
said, largely from the consequences which 
flow from the events. If those who played a 
leading part in the war of American Inde- 
pendence, and, amongst them, the Marquis 
de Lafayette, have an important place in his- 
tory, it may be said to be primarily because of 
the vast consequences which ensued from the 
birth of the American nation. The other an- 
niversary which is celebrated tonight, is the 
anniversary of the first battle of the Marne. 
That, too, derives its importance largely from 
the effects which flowed from it. That victory 
was the definite check to the attempt of Prus- 
sian militarism to win domination over the 
world by the rush of an unexpected and sud- 
den onset. That attempt was checked; but 
the w^ar has continued for four years. I do not 
think I shall be overbold in sajang that, in 
the future, the months that we are passing 
through now, the months of August and Sep- 
tember of this year, w^ill be regarded as the 
turning point which marked the beginning of 

FORTY-FIVE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

the complete and final defeat of that militar- 
ism. (Great applause.) 

In looking back on the four years which 
have passed since the battle of the Marne, 
there are many thoughts which come to one's 
mind, and I will only express two of them. 
The first is that I should wish to be allowed 
to join in the tribute of admiration which has 
been paid tonight, and frequently before, for 
the spirit of France during those years — the 
unfaltering spirit which, through all suffering, 
through all struggle, has shown a constancy, 
a fortitude, and a valor that is above and be- 
yond all praise. The other thought that I 
should like to express is one which perhaps 
comes naturally to the mind of an Englishman, 
who is accustomed to think in terms of the 
sea, and that is, that in all the fluctuations of 
warfare during those four years — and we have 
seen many fluctuations, we have seen the tide 
of war rising and falling, the battle front in 
France swaying forwards and backwards — 
during all those four years there is one element 
of war which has not fluctuated, and that has 
been the sea. (Applause.) 

Mr. Secretary Lane quoted the school child 
who said that the object of the war was to 
make the sea free, that we are fighting to free 
the seas. But the sea must be free before we 
can fight. If the sea had not been free for 
the use of the Allies, of the 23,000,000 men 
who have registered or will register under the 

FORTY-SIX 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 

American draft, not one would have been able 
to find his place in the battlefields of France. 
(Applause.) That freedom of the seas for 
the use of the Allies is secured by the Allied 
fleets, and mainly by the great fleet, British 
and American, lying in the mists of the north- 
ern sea. (Applause.) 

A striking simile was used the other day by 
Mr. Lloyd George. I venture to reproduce it. 
During these years we have been passing, he 
said, through a tunnel, in darkness, in noise, 
in smoke. From time to time there has been 
a gleam of light. We thought we were com- 
ing, perhaps, to the end of the tunnel ; but we 
found it was but the gleam of light from an 
airshaft, and we passed on. Now at last the 
light is beginning to grow brighter, and we 
have the firm conviction that it will continue 
to grow brighter and clearer until we emerge 
from the tunnel into air and sunlight again, 
and arrive at our final destination of Victory 
and of Peace through Victory. (Prolonged 
applause.) 

President Butler: Gentlemen, may I 
adjourn this notable meeting by quoting the 
last sentence which I heard Mr. Choate speak 
— his sentence to Mr. Arthur Balfour: "We 
shall meet again to celebrate victory." 



FORTV-SEVEN 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 



Officers 



Honorary President 
The Ambassador of France 

President 
Nicholas Murray Butler 

Vice-Presidents 
Chauncey M. Depew William D. Guthrie 

Frederick R. Coudert Myron T. Herrick 

Treasurer 
J. PiERPONT Morgan 

Secretary 
S. Reading Bertron 

Chairman 

Executive Committee 

F. Cunliffe-Owen, 37 Riverside Drive 



FORT\- eight 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 



Directors 



Robert Bacon 
Peter T. Barlow 
S. Reading Bertron 
George W. Burleigh 
William A. Clark 
Frederic R. Coudert 
Paul D. Cravath 
F. Cunliffe-Owen 
Robert W. DeForest 
Chauncey M. Depew 
John H. Finley 
Paul Fuller 

Albert Eugene Gallatin 
Warren L. Green 
William D. Guthrie 
McDougall Hawkes 
A. Barton Hepburn 
Myron T. Herrick 
J. Pierpont Morgan 
E. H, Outerbridge 
George Foster Peabody 
Edward Robinson 
Elihu Root 
Henry W. Sackett 
Herbert L. Satterlee 
W. K. Vanderbilt 
Henry Van Dyke 
Whitney Warren 
Henry White 
George T. Wilson 



FORTY-NIX'E 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 



List of Members 

Honorary Members . 
JussERAND, His Excellency Jean Jules, 
Ambassador of France to the United States 

Life Members 
Depew, Chauncey M., Jr. Gurnee, Augustus C. 



Adams, Edward D. 
Ahlstrom, C. F. 
Alexander, Charles B. 
Alexander, J. S. 
Allen, Frederick H. 
Armstrong, L. Sinclair 
Auerbach, Joseph S. 
Bacon, Robert 
Baker, George F. 
Baker, George F., Jr. 
Bangs. Francis S. 
Barclay. Wright 
Barlow, Peter T. 
Barlow, Samuel, L. M. 
Barnum, William M. 
Bartlett, Philip G. 
Baylies, Edmund L. 
Bayne, Howard 
Beck, James M. 
Beekman, R. Livingston 
Belmont, August 
Belmont, Perry 
Benjamin, George P. 
Bernheimer, Charles L. 
Bertron, S. Reading 
Bethell, Union H. 
Betts, Samuel R. 



Billings, C. K. 
Billings, Richard 
Bingham, Gen Theodore A. 
Bisbee, Eldon 
Bliss, Cornelius N., Jr. 
Blum, Albert 
Blumenthall, George 
Boldt, George C. 
Bonbright, William P. 
Borie, Adolphe E. 
Bowring, Charles W. 
Boynton, Charles H. 
Bramwell, E. Percy 
Breed, William C. 
Brewer, George Emerson 
Bright, Louis \. 
Brown, Francis K. 
Brown, Franklin Q. 
Brown, James 
Buckner, Thomas A. 
Bull, Henry W. 
Burleigh, George W. 
Bush, Irving T. 
Butler, Joseph G., Jr. 
Butler, Nicholas Murray 
Butler, William Allen 
Butterworth, Geo. Forrest 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 



Caesar, Henry A. 
Calhoun, John C. 
Cannon, Henry W. 
Carnegie, Andrew 
Carpenter, Charles W. 
Carty, J. J. 
Cauchois, O. R. 
Chadbourne, William M. 



Demorest, William Curtis 
Depew, Chauncey M. 
DePulligny, Jean F. 
Dodge, Cleveland H. 
Dowd, William B. 
Downer, Charles A. 
Dryden, Forrest F. 
Duell, Howard S. 



Chanler, Robert WinthropDuPont, General Coleman 
Chubb, Percy Edwards, Charles Jerome 

Church, Elihu CunynghamEllis, George W. 



Clark, Edward H. 
Clarke, Lewis L. 
Clark, William A. 
Clews, Henry 
Coffin, C. A. 
Cohn, Adolphe 
Cormack, George A. 
Cornell, Robert C. 
Coster, Edw. Livingston 
Coudert, Frederic R. 
Crane, George F. 
Cravath, Paul D. 
Crocker, William H. 
Cruger, Berthram De N. 
Cunliffe-Owen, Frederick 
Cutting, R. Fulton 
Dana, Paul 
Darrell, E. F. 
Davies, Julien T. 
Davison, Charles Stewart 
Davison, H. P. 
Day, W. A. 
DeBary, Adolphe 
DeFlorez, L. 
DeForest Robert W. 
DeLafield, Frederick P. 
Delano, Eugene 
Delano, William Adams 
Demorest, Gilbert Curtis 



Englis, C. M. 
Eno, William P. 
Ewart, Richard H. 
Fahnestock, Snowden A. 
Fairchild, Samuel W. 
Farnsworth, Frederick E. 
Ferree, Barr 
Finley, John H. 
Fish, Stuyvesant 
Fiske, Haley 
Fletcher, Austin B. 
Franklin, Philip A. S. 
Freedlander, Joseph H. 
Freeman, Charles D. 
Freeman, Dr. R. D. 
Freeman, Robert H. 
French, Amos Tuck 
Frissell, A. S. 
Fuller, Paul 

Gallatin, Albert Eugene 
Gans, Howard S. 
Gardiner, Gen. Asa Bird 
Gary, Elbert H. 
Gautier, D. G. 
Gerard, James W. 
Gilbert, Cass 
Godkin, Lawrence 
Goelet, Robert Watson 
Gough, William T. 



FIFTY-OKE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 



Gould, Edwin 
Gould, George J. 
Green, Warren L. 
Greene, Gen. Francis V. 
Greene, Richard T. 
Greenough, William 
Grinnell, William Milne 
Guthrie, William D. 
Hammond, John Hays 
Hammond, John Henry 
Hardon, Henry W. 
Harvey, George 
Hatch, Edward W. 
Hawkes, McDougall 
Hay, Louis C. 
Hedges, Job E. 
Hemphill, J. Alexander 
Hepburn, A. Barton 
Herrick, Myron T. 
Hewitt, Peter Cooper 
Hill, Henry W. 
Hill, Percival S. 
Hine, Francis L. 
Holbrook, Elliott H. 
Hollingsworth, W. T. P. 
Holmes, Edwin T. 
Homer, Francis T. 
Hoyt, Colgate 
Humphreys, Dr. Alex. C. 
Hurd, Richard M. 
Ide, George E. 
Ingraham, Phoenix 
James, Arthur Curtiss 
Jennings, Walter 
Johnson, Columbus O. 
Johnson, Robt. Underwood 
Jouvaud, Lucien 
Juilliard, A. D. 
Kahn, Otto H. 
Kennelly, Bryan L. 



Keogh, Martin J. 
King, Willard V. 
Kingsbury, Howard T. 
Kingsley, Darwin T. 
Kozminski, Maurice W. 
Kunz, George F. 
Lambert, L. G. 
Lamont, Thomas W. 
La Montagne, Henry 
La Montagne, Philip 
Landon, Francis G. 
Lanier, Charles 
Lawrence, Benjamin H. 
Lawrence, Frank R. 
Legg, H. Bertram 
Leon, Maurice 
Littlefield, C. W., 

Pay Director, U. S. N. 
Lord, Chester S. 
Luckett, Henry W. 
Lunger, John B. 
Luther, Edward Staats 
Lyon, Emory S. 
MacArthur, John R. 
Maclntyre, William H. 
Mackay, Clarence H. 
MacPhee, Dr. J. J. 
McCall, John C. 
McCarter, Thomas N, 
McCarter, Uzal H. 
McGarrah, Gates W. 
McMillan, Emerson 
McNeir, George 
Manning, Rev. Wm. T. 
Marcosson, Isaac F. 
Marling, Alfred E. 
Marston, Edgar L. 
Marston, Edwin S. 
Martin, Bradley, Jr. 
Martindale, Joseph B. 



FIFTY-TWO 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETV 



Mason, Alexander T. 
Mason, George Grant 
Maxwell, George 
Merrall, Walter H. 
Middlebrook, Frederick J. 
Middleton, Merle 
Milburn, John G. 
Miller, Charles R. 
Mills, Ogden 
Moore, Frederick P. 
Moore, John B. 
Moore, William H. 
Moorehead, Dr. John J. 
Morgan, J. Pierpont 
Morgan, W. Fellowes 
Munn, Dr. John P. 
Munro, R. F. 
Munsey, Frank A. 
Murphy, Franklin 
Murphy, Patrick Francis 
Myers, Lawrence 
Nixon, Lewis 
Noble, Herbert 
Norton, Eliot 
Oakman, Walter G. 
Ochs, Adolph S. 
Olin, Stephen H. 
Olyphant, Robert 
Osborn, William Church 
Outerbridge, E. H. 
Parker, Alton B. 
Parsons, \A'^illiam Barclay 
Patterson, Rufus L. 
Peabodv, George Foster 
Pell, S.H.P. 
Pendleton, Francis K. 
Ferine, W. D. N. 
Perkins, George W. 
Pierce, Wallace L. 
Pirie, S. C. 



Plimpton, George A. 
Plummer, Franklin A. 
Pomeroy, D. E. 
Porter, General Horace 
Porter, W. H. 
Post, James H. 
Prentiss, John W. 
Presbrey, Frank 
Price, Walter W. 
Prosser, Seward 
Pupin, Michael L. 
Pynchon, George M, 
Quinby, Henry C. 
Quintard, Dr. Elward 
Reid, Ogden M. 
Rheims, Harry L. 
Rhoades, John Harsen 
Roberts, James S. 
Robinson, Edward 
Roche, Francis Burke 
Rockefeller, John D., Jr. 
Rogers, John S. 
Roosevelt, Theodore 
Root, Elihu 
Rosengarten, J. G. 
Rousseau, Theodore 
Rushmore, Charles E. 
Ryan, John D. 
Ryan, Thomas F. 
Sabin, Charles H. 
Sackett, Henry Woodward 
Satterlee, Herbert L. 
Schiff, Jacob H. 
Schiff, Mortimer L. 
Scott, Dr. James B. 
Scott, Walter 
Scribner, Charles 
Seaman, Maj. Louis L. 
Seligman, Henry 
Sellar, Norrie 



FIFTY-THREE 



FRANCE-AMERICA SOCIETY 



Shallcross, Cecil F. 
Shannon, Porter Clyde 
Shannon, Richard C. 
Sheldon, Edward W. 
Sheldon, George R. 
Sherrill, Gen. Charles H. 
Simpson, David B. 
Skaggs, William H. 
Sleicher, John A. 
Sloan, Samuel 
Sloane, William 
Smith, A. H. 
Smith, Bolton 
Smith, Charles Robinson 
Smith, Frank Sullivan 
Smith, Howard C. 
Smith, Ormond G. 
Smith, R. A. C. 
Snow, Elbridge G. 
Snyder, Milton V. 
Snyder, V. P. 
Stanchfield, John B. 
Steele, Charles 
Stetson, Francis Lynde 
Stewart, A. M. 
Stewart, Lispenard 
Stewart, William R. 
Stokes, James 
Stowell, Ellery 
Straight, Willard 
Straus, Oscar S. 
Strong, Benjamin Jr. 
Sturgis, R. Clipston 
Sykes, Walter S. 
Taylor, William A. 
Thacher, Dr. John S. 
Thompson, Col. Robert M. 
Towne, Henry R. 
Trumbull, Frank 



Tully, William J. 
Turnure, George 
Ulman, J. Stevens 
Ulman, Joseph S. 
Underwood, F. D. 
Vail, Theodore N. 
Vanderbilt, W. K. 
Vanderlip, F. A. 
Van Der Poel, Oakley S. 
Van DerPoel, William H. 
Van Dyke, Henry 
Van Sinderien, Howard 
Veit, Richard C. 
Wallace, James N. 
Ward, Cabot 
Ward, George Gray . 
Warren, Major Chas. E. 
Warren, Lloyd 
Warren, Whitney 
Washington, W. Lanier 
Waterbury, John L 
Watkins, T. H. 
Watkins, Henry R.C. 
Watson, T. L. 
Webb, F. Egerton 
Wells, T. Tileston 
White, Henry 
Whitman, Charles S. 
Wickersham, G. \\\ 
Wiggin, Albert H. 
Wiley, Louis 
Willcox, William R. 
Williams, Stephen I. 
Williams, William 
Wilson, George T. 
Wilson, R. Thornton 
Winslow, Admiral C. McR. 
Wykes, Hunter 



FIFTY-FOUR 



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